Wedensday (4/7) Update

These last 48 hours have been crazy. Yesterday Dad got his drain tubes removed and the picc line in his neck taken out. It was a long and exhausting day for him. After a long wait he was finally moved out of ICU and on to the transplant floor. Last night I went to Houston and stayed with Dad for his first night on his own. Mom, Kelly, Janice and I have been taking turns sitting with him day and night. After almost 50 days of being monitored non-stop and hooked up to all kinds alarms, it was somewhat hard for Dad to get used to being without all of that. It may sound weird, but those alarms and 24 hour surveillance in the ICU provide a certain level of comfort that disappears when you move into a room with no monitors or alarms. It will take Mike some time to learn to trust his new heart and the job it is doing. Until then, some anxiety about what is going on is to be expected.

Today was a rough day. Early in the morning Dad became very weak and his blood pressure dropped extremely low. Also, his hemoglobin level was low. They made some adjustments to his meds and scheduled a heart biopsy for tomorrow to check for rejection. Later in the morning Dad had some type of reaction to something (still yet to be determined). All of the issues of the morning initiated a call that brought about 15 doctors to Dad's bedside. It was pretty impressive actually. Anyway, they continued to use medicine to treat the problems of the day and the reaction subsided and his blood pressure began to come up. Later on in the afternoon they did an echo of his heart. The results were good. It showed an ejection fraction of 70 (with his old heart is was less than 30) and confirmed that there was not any fluids around his heart. So, after an extremely long day for everyone, Dad is now resting. Mom will be staying with him tonight as he still needs lots of assistance. Tomorrow we hope for good results on his biopsy and the possibility of going home early next week.